Tuesday, January 29, 2008

True Friend meets Bali Breeze





Another DKOS swap! For this one we had to use the Bali Breeze paper in a way that shows both sides. Me being the ding bat that I am forgot to order the paper on my last order so one of the gals sent me some pieces to use for the swap. The colors on this are Old Olive, Purely Pomagranate and Summer Sun. The paper also has Taken with Teal in it, I believe. I used my markers to color the flower. I had to go back over the dots on the flower border after I stamped it because they didn't come out quite as dark as I had hoped. They were muddied by the Summer Sun. Some sponging on the edges. Some Old Olive brads holding the folded paper over so you could see the other side.

Monday, January 28, 2008

Did I ever show you this?

I don't think I did cause I sent these both to my secret sister at one point, I think. It is hard to remember.



This Bella card is very similar to an ATC I did for a swap. So if it looks familiar that is why. Wild Wassabi, Purely Pomagranate, and Blue, blue...Bordering Blue? No. Ballet Blue? No. The other one...Brocade Blue. That's it! Man I am slipping. The third kid did me in. My mind isn't what it used to be. This here is Cosmobella from StampingBella. The Cocktails sentiment is from The Cat's Pajamas and the background is SU Crosshatch. I love that stamp. Not long after it came out I was sitting in the bathroom at work and realized the wallpaper had the same pattern on it. Don't know why I had to share that with you. I paper pieced her shirt. I think that is Cutie Pie paper. Colored with marker in other areas. Then there is a big fat rhinestone brad there with her just cause it needed some bling and I didn't know what to do.




Here is Stem Silhouettes in fall colors. This was a DKOS swap too. Old Olive, Really Rust and More Mustard. Pretty straightforward here. The background is Sanded. I like Sanded a lot too. If I had to choose between Sanded and Crosshatch I'm not sure which one I would pick. I love them both. If I really had to pick just one I guess Crosshatch, cause I could create a look similar to Sanded with the DTP technique. You could duplicate Crosshatch too, but I am too lazy for that.

Saturday, January 26, 2008

Baroque Motifs in Red and Green

Baroque Motifs. I just like saying that. You have to say it with a French accent you know? Another DKOS card. For this one we had to use reds and greens with Baroque Motifs and add some background paper and some ribbon. I'm guessing background paper means printed paper. So that is what I went with. I found this in the pack of Rubber Soul paper that I bought when I had to buy the Snowman From Above stamp that I haven't used yet. I found that the leaves were similar to the leaves in the Baroque Motif stamp. See that. Pretty clever huh? The paper pack had brown with the reds and greens so that is why I matted my pieces with Chocolate Chip. I used Old Olive for my green and Real Red. I sponged the edges. I took forever to tie the knots in the ribbon. I don't know what my problem was that day. I just couldn't tie a good looking knot for nothing. I tried several ways and made note of which side crossed over which etc. I couldn't get the same thing to work twice. I finally got all 6 cards done that I was making. Phew!


Friday, January 25, 2008

Awe! Aren't they cute?

Ok, ignore the fact that she has a dislocated shoulder. It takes some time to get used to lining up the body parts. I made this card for the DKOS swap. The instructions said to make a kids Valentine card with the All in the Family set and do some paper piercing (I double checked it said piercing and not piecing. See the holes in the pink on the right side?), and I think we had to do ribbon and sparkle too. Her skirt is sparkly, you just can't see it here. I picked some kid friendly colors and when to town. Real Red, Lovely Lilac (I think, I always get the purples mixed up) and Pretty In Pink. The hearts along the bottom are from Monkey Business. The skirt and the flower are part of the All in the Family Accessories set.

Thursday, January 24, 2008

So Many Cards

I've made so many cards since I finished my stamping room last week, I just don't know what to show you first! Plus I have some that I didn't want to post until now because I sent them to my secret sister and I didn't want her to discover me in case she was to happen upon my blog. Let's see..... These two have a similar color scheme. Let's start here.

This card is for the DKOS swap I am in. We had to use the So Much stamp set. I liked this set when it first came out in the Fall/Winter catalog, but then I looked at the price and said - I can't believe it costs SO MUCH. So that is my guess how it got its name. Hee Hee. Anyway, I got it free when I went to regionals this fall so the price was right then. The colors are Soft Sky, More Mustard and Chocolate Chip. I really like this color combo. I wanted to do something different than my standard main image, mat it and stick another piece of card stock on there somewhere. I had already cut my pieces to have a main image and mat it twice, but I decided to use those pieces and mix it up a bit. The Chocolate Chip panel has the circle image stamped with white StazOn and then edges DTP'd with the white StazOn. The Mustard panel is next with the dotted circle image stamped multiple times in Chocolate Chip. I DTP'd the edges of that piece with Chocolate Chip. The white panel is on dimensionals. I stamped the flower image in Soft Sky a few times and once in More Mustard. I also DTP'd the edges of that piece with Chocolate Chip. I stuck in a jumbo eyelet, and voila! I really like how it turned out.

Next up is my card front for Crystal's new catty swap. The colors on this are Blue Bayou, So Saffron, and Chocolate Chip. I wanted to use something other than the pinks and browns you usually see with these sets. I had a lot of Blue Bayou so I chose that for the base. I stamped the flower images from the Boho Backgrounds set all over in Blue Bayou ink. Then I took some of the 5/8" Chocolate Chip Grosgrain and tied a knot in it. I attached it to the back of the So Saffron strip and then stuck that on the card base. The main image is stamped in Chocolate Chip on Very Vanilla card stock. I colored in my flower with the So Saffron marker. I then stamped the flower trio in Chocolate Chip on So Saffron and punched them out with the coordinating punch. The main image and two of the flowers are up on dimensionals.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

oops!

I got these all ready to post at the end of last week and didn't post them. This is what I sent to my secret sister for our reveal gift this month. There is a card with the new Berry Bliss paper and the One of a Kind stamp set.
I wrapped a crystal light container with the DS paper and covered the top. I filled it with nuggets.
This is a bracelet I made with little shrinky dink flowers from the One of a Kind set. I had some black shrink plastic that I stamped the flowers on with white StazOn. Then I used the coordinating punch to punch them out. NOT EASY!! Then I flipped them over and placed them in the punched out template so I could stamp the back side. Then I punched a hole in them and shrunk them in the oven.
After they cooled I put a jump ring on the little flowers and made the bracelet and some coordinating earrings. I hope she likes them!
In other news - I didn't make the Gina K guest team and I didn't win the contest at Pink Hedgehog. Oh well. You can see the pink hedgehog winners here, and my card is posted there too. http://www.pinkhedgehogpapercrafts.com/Gallery/Contest_jan_2008.php

Friday, January 18, 2008

New Stamping Space

Well my stamping space is pretty much done so here are a few pictures. I should've taken some befores of the other area so you could see how dark and sad it was.
Now it is nothing fancy by any means, but it is nice to have a little corner that is bright and pretty much clean.
My cuttlebug now has a home on top of the file cabinet that holds all my 8.5 X 11 cardstock. I have a peg board to the left that holds some wheel handles, scissors, a few embellishements. I need to get some more hooks or baskets so I can put that to use more.
This table you see on the right is my daughter's craft table. So she can be in there with me and working on her own projects.
These are my plastic candy jars filled with ribbons wrapped on those old wooden clothes pins. I need to label these. I have them divided into SU current, SU retired, and non-SU ribbons. I got the idea to do this from Nichole Heady's blog. Her jars are the pretty glass ones and she has one jar for each color of ribbon. Whew!
I stole this drawer unit from my husband's old office. My punches go in the drawers instead of taking up space on my desk.
That basket of scraps next to it needs to be filed.
The pink and brown things are from the dollar store. I also got a few other containers there that I throw my embellishments into.
See that one pink and brown container holding my incolor ink pads... it can fit two ink pads side by side. I haven't tested how far up you can stack them. Right now one side has 5 and the other had 4. Pretty nifty and it only cost $1. The narrow one next to it has all my adhesives like glue dots, dimensionals, super sticky tape, crystal effects, etc.

Take a look at these stamps. The top row that is only on one shelf is my SU current stamps. The next row that is across two shelves are my retired stamps that I haven't been able to part with. And I have parted with many retired stamps.






I also have a little cabinet that isn't pictured that holds some ink refills, craft spots, and some other misc. stuff.

You Make My Day!

I was nominated for the "You Make My Day" award by Laura over at The Stamping Soldier. Yeah! And now here is a list of the bloggers that make my day.


  1. Crystal at http://stampwithcrystal.blogspot.com/
  2. Jana at http://indyemmert.blogspot.com/
  3. Alicia at http://rosylittlethings.typepad.com/posie_gets_cozy/
  4. Dawn at http://mom2my6pack.blogspot.com/
  5. Ree at http://thepioneerwoman.com/
  6. Dark Yet Lovely http://jseib.wordpress.com/
  7. Patricia at http://patriciarobitaillejewelry.blogspot.com/
  8. Tandra at http://alittleinkalicious.blogspot.com/
  9. Karrie at http://stampgirl.typepad.com/burnin_rubber/
  10. Elizebeth at http://www.ebethonline.com/

Award rules: Give the award to up to 10 people whose blogs bring you happiness and inspiration and make you feel so happy about blogland! Let them know by posting a comment on their blog so that they can pass it on.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Can I go home now?

I need to take a day off to finish organizing my craft room. Ahh-choo! I think I feel a cold coming on.

I am so close. I just need to organize all my stamps on my shelves, and my 12 x 12 paper and all the clipboards, tiles, notepads, pens, tins, candles, and other alterables somewhere. I don't want to throw it together. I want to get it right. My desk is pretty much set. The card stock is mostly all filed in its folders. I need to go through my scrap basket and file the scraps. I need to label the folders and I need some more folders for the incolors and neutrals. My ribbons are all wrapped on the clothes pins and sitting in the plastic candy jars.

Maybe I can at least get pictures of my desk and post those tomorrow.

I got my SU! order from the new catty yesterday. It was a very small order. One of a Kind and the coordinating punch, Boho Backgrounds and the Berry Bliss paper. I ran downstairs last night and mounted one stamp and quickly made some little shrinky dink flowers that I am going to use on a bracelet for my secret sister's reveal gift. I need to get cracking and finish that.

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Oh the agony!

I keep stalking the http://www.pinkhedgehogpapercrafts.com/ site to see who won their contest awhile ago and the announcement keeps getting postponed! You can see the card I entered here. I took a picture of it before I sent it in. Heck! I don't even know for sure that she got my card. I'm hoping yes. Well, it sounds like she will be posting all the entries in a gallery on their site so at least maybe my card will be in the gallery.

And this weekend I will be stalking my inbox for an email from GinaK. She posted that she will be sending emails to the people they have chosen for the guest design team this weekend. And the announcement will come Monday. You can see the cards I submitted here, here, and here.

In the meantime, I have started a SU! demo website and opened a Etsy shop. Links over to the right. Check them out and let me know what you think. I need to make some more things to add to the Etsy shop. There is only one in there now. A custom made name frame.

Tuesday, January 08, 2008

Isn't she lovely?

I took this picture last week when we had a snow day from school. This is Maddie and Bailey. I can't get over the smile on Maddie. She usually makes goofy faces when I try to take her picture. I made this my desktop at work.


I don't have anything stamping related to share right now. I haven't been able to get to my craft area since before Christmas. But I need to get down there soon. I've got some projects I need to get done and I'm also trying to better organize my space.

Friday, January 04, 2008

Teacher Gift

For Christmas I was going to make my daughter's teacher a name frame... and I got to thinking about how young she was and how she had a boyfriend and what if she gets married and changes her name and then wouldn't be able to use her name frame for very long. So I looked at my All in the Family stamp set and decided to do a sort of class picture. I counted the number of girls and boys in the class, but I didn't really make note of their features so I winged the hair colors/styles, etc. Here is how that turned out.

It took me a few tries to get them all in the space alloted. I finally figured out to start in the bottom row and put the heads on before I started the feet for the next row. The ribbons are the school colors. I paper pieced the clothes and colored with markers for the skin and hair.






I wasn't too thrilled with how this came out. So I attached another piece to the back and put her name on it so she has the option of choosing which side she wants to show. Here is the name side.

I went with the school colors again. Bravo Burgandy and More Mustard.

The thing I am the most thrilled with is the frame. When I bought it at the dollar store it was bright red chrome. Really shiney and bright. So I sanded it and rubbed some brown StazOn ink on it and voila! Perfecto!!!





We got a thank you note from the teacher yesterday and I think she prefers the "class picture" side because she went on and on about it and how the kids were all trying to figure out who was who. When I gave it to her, it was on the name side with an explaination that she could flip it over.

Thursday, January 03, 2008

It's a new year

Time to get back to work, back to posting, get organized.




Here are a couple of ATC swaps I did in late November/early December. I can't recall exactly. It seems like the month of December was a blur. The swap hostess took these pictures and posted all the swaps on her blog. I borrowed the pictures she took of mine since I hadn't taken pictures of mine yet.



I've been thinking a lot about this hobby/obsession and what I want to do differently in the new year. One thing I have decided is that I will not sign up for any more swaps. I have already commited to a few and I will complete those, but I need to focus my energy/stamping time elsewhere. I have bags full of swap cards just sitting. I need to donate those to the troops or somewhere that will get some use out of them. I am going to clean out my stash and only buy things I KNOW I will use. I will make use of the stuff I bought that is just sitting there. That is about it.
Stayed tuned for the gift Maddie gave her teacher this Christmas.

Oh the doggie and the lava lamp are from The Cat's Pajamas. The paisley paper I got at Joann's. Not sure who makes it. The other ATC features Cosmobella from Stamping Bella and the Cocktails sentiment is from The Cat's Pajamas.